In today's world most of us use a social media platform. Why do we put our trust in these platforms? they have become part of our every day lives. We put so much of our personal information online. But how secure is this information? Today a story came out about a massive security breach at Facebook. 2 million accounts have been hacked into as a result of malicious software. A virus was downloaded onto " untold numbers of computers." This is a very large problem not only for your personal account but also the pagers you manage. I personally manage 2 pages on Facebook. If my account were hacked there could be a huge issue with

Facebook has become the largest social media network around the globe. As a result this network has become a major part of a companies social media presence. One of the newer additions to the platform is the boost feature on pages. This allows the page adminstrator to advertise their page or specific posts. This broadens your pages reach with a relativly low cost. Two months ago I started my first facebook page to begin marketing my photogrophy and update people on my most recent images. I have played around with this boost feature and found it usefull. depending on the amount you spend your reach can extend to an additional several

The implementation and rise of social media has revolutionized the concept of marketing solely by word of mouth. Today we no longer need to talk about an organization in order to promote it. We can go onto Facebook and like a page and follow organizations on Twitter or LinkedIn. All of these connections allow customers to act as the representatives for these organizations. When you associate yourself with these electronic networks you are endorsing their product. By following online sites, the internet is quickly replacing the traditionalist views of word of mouth and are giving social media companies a huge amounts of power. Information is and always has been power. The shift in power to internet based companies for networking is why we must now learn about this new and rapidly developing medium. Understanding how to effectively use and manage your social media presence can be a huge asset to your organization. One of the new ways in which organizations are using social media not only as a way to get the word out but to also keep their customers engaged and thinking about their products. Companies are promoting their merchandise through contests and projects. These cultivate and maintain positive customer relationships. The constant web traffic allows all of the customers' connections to become an extension of their electronic reach.

From a young age I have been amazed by the adventures that those with great privilege have been able to complete. Geo Ex is a company which has been around for several decades meeting the demand for high end adventure travel. Geo Ex has adventure tours around the world and has always been a dream company of mine to work for. I want to do an AIDA evaluation of their website as it is a major marketing tool for their organization. Off the bat they clearly make good use of SEO methods as they appear first on a SERP (search engine results page) . Upon entering their site they make great use of the first part of the AIDA acronym which is attention. The use of extremely high resolution and artistic travel images lends credibility to their organization. Next they do a great job of captivating interest. Their product is clearly solid but they do this in a way which peaks interest through creative as well as intriguing writing. This style makes one want to delve deeper into the site. Next is the most important step which is desire. Establishing an emotional connection is key to a strong page view to sale conversion rate. Their superior product development allow those with the means to travel on a high end tour to want to travel with them. The last step is action. This is where a degree of difficulty comes into this seemingly flawless evaluation. due to the target market these are high cost trips which do require somewhat deep pockets. I do know from personal experience that their customer service is on top of the situation and is highly effective at what they do.

AIDA is a highly important aspect of marketing that we must all consider when developing our marketing plans. Without such a plan the quality of your product will not have much of an impact on the success of your program. The first part of this acronym A stands for attention. This has never been as difficult as it is in the 21 first century. We are consistently bombarded with untold amounts of attention getters each day. As a result many of us have become numb to these attention getters. Once we have our clients attention we must raise their interest. How do we do this? This is where we must strive to promote all the benefits to our program. By promoting these benefits we can then move to establish an emotional connection between our product and customers. This emotional connection is the lifeblood of sales and will drive our programs towards sustainable success. By now we should have established this emotional connection. it is time to spring our move and wrap up the sale. The final letter is A which stands for action. If you have effectively created an emotional bond this part is simple. It is now time to cross the t's and dot the I's.

In the past few years the rise of social media has opened new paths for marketing. The wonderful part of using social media for marketing is the use of the word of mouth tactics. Social media makes this far easier than it was in previous generations. When people share information with each other they are advertising for you. Their endorsement of such a product lends credibility. This credibility influences their personal sales. This mass form of communication also allows information on your product to spreed as well as covering a great amount of distance

I have found that there is great deal more to keywords than meets the eye. When evaluating which of the keywords to use we must not only look at how often they are searched but also how competitive the result are. This ability to optimize your keywords based upon this information will not only improve your sites visibility but also your site traffic. Stuart Derman's SEO/Keyword Assignment.

Author

Stuart DermanSenior Undergraduate StudentParks, Recreation and Tourism University of Utah

Challenge is something that I seek out in my life. In the last five years I have become fixated with the idea of adventure. I started with short hiking trips and progressed to climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest Peak in Africa. These unique experiences have since led me to become a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School. While attending NOLS, our expedition crossed the Homathko Ice Cap in British Columbia's remote and untamed Waddington Range. This was the most difficult and demanding experience of my life. Something changed in me during this month. I developed a passion to explore the seldom traveled parts of this wild and diverse world. Since returning from this amazing experience I have now begun to mentor others in mountaineering, and impart my love of adventure. The famous Adventurer Victor Sanders once wrote: "If You are not hungry, you are carrying too much food. If you are warm, you have too many clothes. If you are not frightened, you have too much gear If you get up your climb, it was too easy anyway" I read this for the first time while I was on a NOLS Expedition